Information for New Members

About the Members

The Edinburgh Mountaineering Club (EMC) currently has around 50 members the majority of whom live in or near Edinburgh. Residency however, is not a requirement of membership and indeed we have members based in a number of locations outside the central belt of Scotland. We have a broad range of ages represented in our membership and the club welcomes new members who are experienced walkers and are over 18 years of age.

Meets

The club runs weekend meets approximately every third weekend throughout the year. These cover a wide range of venues throughout the Highlands with occasional trips to Southern Scotland and the Lake District. With the exception of holiday weekends and New Year, the accommodation is typically booked for Friday and Saturday nights. See our current meets programme for more details.

Booking On

[The booking rules apply equally to members, and to non-members that have not yet attended two weekend meets. No priority is given to members over non-members.]

The committee member responsible for a meet will take bookings for hut meets by telephone / email one calendar month in advance of the meet. For example if a meet is taking place on the 25th and 26th of February booking will open at 6pm on the 25th of January. Telephone bookings should not be made after 10pm. You can also book on behalf of (at most) one other person. If you book on a meet and then cancel, your fee is forfeit unless a replacement is found. If you book on behalf of someone else, you are also liable for their fee in the event of their cancellation.

For camping meets there is no requirement to book although the meet organiser will generally email members a couple of weeks before to ask who is intending to go.

Oversubscription of Meets

In general, the places on a meet are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. However, during the first four hours of booking (6pm until 10pm, as defined above), all telephone bookings are given an equal priority (ahead of any email bookings). If, during this period, there are more telephone bookings than places, then a ballot is held at the next pub meet in which the places are filled by "drawing names from a hat".

It is permissible, when booking or at any time before the ballot, to request that a second person is added to your ballot slip (as long as they were also booked in the first four hours, and they consent to joining you). If such a couple is drawn for the last place on a meet, then further draws are made to fill that final place, and the couple become first reserves. In the event that only couples remain to fill the final place, each couple in turn is offered the option to have only one of them on the meet.

Once a meet has been fully subscribed, a reserve list is maintained in case anybody drops out. The first people on the reserve list are those that failed in the ballot, in the order that they were drawn. After that, places on the reserve list are assigned in the order that the applications are received. Places on a meet that have been allocated are not transferable, except to those at the head of the reserve list.

Accommodation

Accommodation for winter meets is usually in a bunkhouse or a mountaineering club hut. Over the summer we have a mixture of camping and bunkhouse / hut meets. The standard of accommodation varies. Mountaineering club huts tend to be well placed for the mountains but basic and inexpensive (not all have showers). Many of the bunkhouses are very comfortable, and some even boast saunas or hot tubs. Campsites are generally quiet / out of the way.

Accommodation costs vary from around £5 for club huts / campsites to £15 per night for bunkhouses.

Transport

Transport is by private car. Car sharing is encouraged and the committee member responsible for the meet can help to coordinate this. If you car share you will be expected to contribute to the petrol costs.

What to Bring

In addition to all your normal walking or climbing gear, a sleeping bag and sometimes a sleeping mat are required for hut meets. For camping meets a tent, stove etc is needed as well.

For all meets, you should also bring enough food and drink for the weekend. If there is a hotel / pub nearby often some members will eat out - however, even if you plan on doing this you should still bring something to eat just in case.

Is Walking the Only Activity?

As well as walking, several members are keen climbers, both in summer and winter conditions.

Other occasional activities include skiing, cycling, and checking out the nearby gear and coffee shops because the weather's too grim to contemplate a hill.

Walk/Route Planning

There is not usually any planning of activities ahead of a meet. Once on a meet, the evenings are often spent discussing options for the next day, but frequently the final decisions are taken over breakfast.

The walks are not led, and groups can range in size from one person, to the majority of those present.

Do I Have Enough Experience?

The club is for experienced hill walkers - many of our members have climbed all the Munros, and are mopping up Corbetts or Grahams. You don't have to be that experienced, but most new members will have already climbed a number of Munros.

You will be expected to

• be responsible for your own safety on the hill
• be able to navigate competently
• have the appropriate equipment (including ice-axe and crampons in winter) and the skills to use it.

How Fit do I Need to Be?

As a general rule of thumb, you would want to be able to reliably walk the hills at a pace consistent with the timings given in the SMC "Munros" and "Corbetts" books. If this is a problem, or if you are someone who is often overtaken on the hills, then you may well find the pace rather too demanding.

How to Join

New members may join after attending two weekend meets. The cost of the first year's membership depends on the time of year; usually £20, but reduced to £10 between 1st January and the AGM in March. At the time of the AGM, annual membership (of £20) becomes payable for all members, and should be payed at the AGM or the first meet attended thereafter.